The Dangers of Writing a Love Letter
by radical-rebel
Summary: Remus writes Sirius a letter - a letter that he believes will never be seen by anyone except for himself. Only, other people do see it. And suddenly life becomes rather stressful. Three-shot. SBRL. Yes, this is slash; if you don't like it, don't read it.
1. Part 1

_A/N: Hello everyone! I would like to assure you that, thought it may have been years since I actually posted anything, I am actually alive and well. For the most part. Welcome to the first full length (i.e. multi-chapter) fic I have ever successfully finished. The story is basically this: Remus is in love with Sirius. So he writes a letter - a letter which he fully believes that no one except himself will ever see. Only, other people do see it. And life gets kind of hectic for a while... _

_Before we get started, I just have to say that this fic was only completed for the sake of my friend Mollie (also known as _molliewobbles_), who is just about the awesomest person I know. She is so awesome, in fact, that I have to make up words to describe her awesomeness. Like supertastic. Or amazingful. Oh yeah, and before I forget..._

_Disclaimer: I own nothing. Duh._

* * *

The Dangers of Writing a Love Letter, pt. 1

Remus stared down at the parchment on the table in front of him and stuck his quill dejectedly into his mouth. The opening paragraph of his essay was weak, he thought, and nowhere near Professor McGonagall's standards. There was no way he could even consider turning something of this caliber in to the Transfiguration professor on Monday. Sighing, he pulled another sheet of parchment out of his school bag, yanked the quill out of his mouth, and dipped it into his inkwell.

The common room was mostly empty, so distractions were few and far between. Aside from Remus, the only other people in the room were four third years sitting by the window and a solitary sixth year reading in a chair by the unlit fireplace. School had been in session for about a month and the weather was still fairly nice, so most of the Gryffindors had opted to spend their Sunday outdoors. This pleased Remus; it was nice to be able to sit somewhere other than his room or the library and work on a paper without being terribly distracted.

That was a lie, though. Remus was _terribly_ distracted. His quill hovered over the blank parchment, but the seemingly endless supply of words that normally filled his head had run dry. At this thought, Remus smiled; Sirius liked to joke about how Remus always had something witty or clever to say. Of course, Remus continually pointed out that this wasn't the case – that even Remus Lupin could be left speechless on occasion. Then Sirius would scoff and say something particularly awkward, to which Remus would respond just as wittily as usual. Remus almost wished that Sirius were here now to see him floundering, because then he could finally prove his point. But if Sirius _were_ here, then he would pester Remus for an explanation until he got one. And that brought Remus back to the cause of his distraction in the first place.

Sirius, Remus had decided, was too attractive for his own good. Girls were constantly fawning over Sirius, and staring at him in class, and giggling when he walked by, and daring each other to talk to him and running away before they got within speaking distance. But Remus knew that eventually one of these girls was bound to have a backbone; they would steal Sirius and drag him into the nearest broom closet, and when that happened, Remus wouldn't be able to restrain himself from hexing her all the way into the next week. He hadn't thought he was a jealous person, but he was swiftly starting to discover otherwise.

Over the summer, Remus had come to the conclusion that he was completely, one hundred percent, head-over-heels in love with his best mate. Honestly, he couldn't remember a time when he _hadn't_ been in love with Sirius. He just hadn't realized exactly what was wrong with him. Up until that point, he had assumed that what he was feeling was perfectly normal. Of course all blokes felt like skipping whenever their best mate said something nice about them; all blokes were dying to know what their best mate was thinking or feeling; all blokes fantasized about their best mate on occasion. It wasn't until his stomach began to do somersaults when Sirius looked at him, and the fantasizing started to progress to things Remus hadn't even known were possible, that Remus realized that his feelings might, perhaps, be a little more than chummy.

The real problem lay in two factors: one was Remus's cowardice. There was no way in a million years that he could ever even _think_ of telling Sirius that he loved him. The only way Sirius was going to find out was if Remus somehow got very, very drunk, which, to Remus, seemed about as likely as the sky turning purple: not very likely.

The second factor, and one which caused Remus a good deal of grief, was Sirius's inability to understand the concept of personal space. If Sirius weren't perpetually hanging off of Remus's neck, Remus might have been able to convince himself that his feelings were platonic. But Sirius wasn't only hanging off of Remus's neck – he was throwing himself across Remus's lap, and leaning up against Remus shoulder whenever he could, and ruffling his hair at any convenient occasion. If Remus hadn't known better, he would have said Sirius was consciously trying to drive him insane.

So, since Remus couldn't get over Sirius, and since confessing his love was nigh impossible, Remus was going to have to settle for suffering in silence. Thus, in the last several weeks, he had become a paragon of distraction. He longed for the days when he could sit down and write a paper in an hour at most, the days when his Arithmancy homework took him only ten minutes. Now he was lucky if his homework was done before curfew. Remus looked in the mirror in the morning and swore he could see grey hairs. If he didn't do something soon, he might actually find them.

Sighing again, he put his quill to the parchment, only to realize that the ink had dried up. He shook his head, dipped the quill into the inkwell, and began to write.

_Sirius,_

_I just wanted to tell you that I love you. It's all your fault that I can't focus anymore, and I thought you deserved to know. Although you won't actually know, because you won't ever see this letter. But I can imagine that you would feel a strong sense of pride upon reading it. Oh hooray for you! You have caused the great Remus Lupin to be unable to concentrate for more than five minutes at a time! How talented you must feel! I can't ever tell you that you're the reason though, because I know you wouldn't feel the same. For Merlin's sake, you've got girls lining up for a chance just to look at you. Just, for my sake, please attempt not to brag about it too much; I'm trying my hardest not to maim anyone, but I can't guarantee anything. _

He paused, his quill hovering over the last word, and took a deep breath.

_I adore you. Even when you go on long, pointless tirades about the amazing qualities of hair gel or the importance of brushing your teeth after lunch (I think I've heard that particular one twice, and, in as long as I can remember, you've never once followed that advice). Even when your ego takes over and you insist on everyone calling you King Sirius (which I know has happened at least once – don't argue, because James will back me up). Even when you're depressed and you huddle up next to me with your knees pulled in to your chest, and I have to play with your hair and act like nothing's wrong until you calm down again. _

_I still adore you._

Running a hand through his sandy blond hair, Remus stared at what he had just admitted – even if he was the only one to ever see it. Then he briskly folded the piece of parchment and shoved it in between his Potions essay and his Charms notes. The action came just in time; not a moment later, there was a rustling near the portrait hole and someone began to shout his name.

"Moony, Moony, Moony!"

A large, solid, and rather heavy object collided with the werewolf at full force, shoving him backwards onto the couch and knocking the inkwell from the table to the floor. From somewhere underneath the mass on top of him, Remus heard it shatter and let out an anguished moan.

"Sirius," he said calmly. "What have I told you about my ink-wells?"

Sirius grinned impishly down at him. "That they aren't mine for the breaking?"

"Precisely," Remus said, sounding remarkably like a professor who was congratulating a student for getting the right answer. "Why, then, is my inkwell now broken?"

"Because I jumped on you?" Sirius said thoughtfully.

"That's right. Now let's put two and two together, shall we: if my inkwells are not yours for the breaking, and my new inkwell has just been broken because you jumped on me, what is the logical conclusion?"

Sirius blinked. "That I am indirectly responsible for the breaking of your inkwell?" he asked, sounding perplexed.

"No," said Remus dryly. "Our conclusion is that jumping on Remus is an incredibly stupid and dangerous thing." He made a feeble attempt at pushing Sirius off of him, but as he had expected, it didn't do anything. "Padfoot?"

"Yes, Moony, darling?"

"I hate to trouble you, but could you possibly get up now?"

"Certainly."

Sirius lifted himself up and then offered a hand to Remus, who took it and stood up as well. The other occupants of the common room didn't pay any attention to the two boys; the odd behavior of the Marauders was commonly accepted by now, and little, every-day things like Sirius jumping on Remus were hardly worth discussing. Retrieving his wand from the table, Remus knelt down and cast a cleaning charm on the floor to remove the ink. The inkwell had broken into several large pieces and was easily spelled back together. The quill had rolled under the couch; Remus retrieved it and placed it back into the now-empty inkwell.

Sirius watched impatiently, his arms crossed over his chest. "Can't you go any faster?" he said at last.

"Why the rush?" Remus asked, straightening up his pile of notes and setting it back on the table.

Sirius groaned, as if Remus had asked a question to which the answer was painfully obvious. "I've been inside for five minutes already! I'm standing here, wasting precious minutes of sunlight, while you tidy up! I can feel my skin cells imploding from lack of sunlight as we speak!"

"You don't have to wait for me," Remus pointed out. "You-"

"Yes, I do," Sirius cut him off. "I told James I would bring you outside."

"Ah," said Remus. "Now we get to the point."

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Moony, can we _please_ hurry up?" he pleaded. "I think I'm going to shrivel."

"You are the most ridiculous person on the face of the earth," said Remus. "And I'm done 'tidying up,' in case you hadn't noticed. I've been done for a while now."

"Are you trying to kill me?!" Sirius screeched. "Why are we just standing here? We could be outside already! The fresh air is calling to me!"

Without further ado, he grabbed Remus by the wrist and proceeded to forcibly drag him out of Gryffindor tower. Remus waved to the third years by the window; they smiled and waved in return.

The sun was, indeed, rather glorious. As soon as they stepped out onto the grounds, its light seemed to envelop Remus, soaking into his pores and warming his skin. Sirius didn't let go of his wrist until they reached the tree where the rest of their company sat. James and Lily were lying in the grass, James's head on Lily's stomach. Peter was leaning against the tree trunk, absently shredding a blade of grass with his fingers.

"Hello, everyone; I have returned!" Sirius announced, collapsing grandly into the grass next to James.

"Took you long enough," James retorted. "Did you decide to play a game of chess or something while you were fetching him?"

"Aww, you missed me?" Sirius cooed. "I know, Prongsie. It's hard to bear even a moment without me. My amazing-ness floors you. My charms astound you. My good looks leave you panting for more, don't they? I simply radiate sexiness; I can't help it that I'm so enthralling."

"More like repulsive," Lily interrupted.

"You too?" Sirius asked, feigning shock. "I had no idea I was so loved! From now on, I promise I'll never leave your side. Even death could not tear me away, such is my devotion!"

"Really, Blackie, I don't think that's necessary," said the redhead, scrunching her nose.

"Just make it a bit quicker next time, Padfoot," James ordered airily.

"Of course, my liege," Sirius drawled. "I shall endeavor to do my best to please you."

"Wait a minute," Remus said indignantly. "Am I just an object to you people – something that you can just drag around at your own leisure without a regard for how I feel?"

Lily, James, and Sirius all looked at each other.

"Yes," said Lily and James simultaneously.

Sirius gasped and clutched at his heart. "How can you say that? This is our darling Moony-kins, here! We raised him from a poor, innocent first year to the man he is today! Hell, we practically _made _him! Doesn't that mean anything to you? We took his innocence, for Merlin's sake!"

Remus and Lily exchanged half-amused, half-disgusted glances. James shook his head as much as he could, considering that it was resting on Lily's abdomen.

"Pads, that was awful," he said. His voice sounded much like Lily and Remus's glances had looked.

Sirius blinked for a moment, and then a brilliant grin spread over his face. "It was, wasn't it?" he said triumphantly. He promptly leaped up and cupped his hands to his mouth, shouting, "Did you hear that, World? We made Moony a man!"

"Uh, Padfoot?" Peter interjected, speaking for the first time during the conversation. "I think you're scaring the first years."

Remus looked over to where Peter was pointing; a small group of short and rather scrawny eleven-year-olds were trying to scuttle away without being noticed. Lily began to giggle under her breath. Remus was torn between laughing as well and digging a hole to crawl into and die. In the end, he settled for laughing

"Right you are, Wormtail," Sirius said, giving the first years an appraising look. "My apologies!" he called. The first years gave up on being sneaky and ran for all they were worth. This made Remus, James, Lily, and Peter burst into hysteric laughter. Shrugging, Sirius sat down again. "Ah well," he said. "The sooner they're acquainted with the ways of the world, the better."

"So, why was my presence here required, exactly?" Remus asked. "Aside from humiliating me beyond repair, of course."

"I do my best," Sirius said, smirking.

"I don't actually remember, Moons," James admitted. "We were bored, I guess."

"And, naturally, the ultimate cure to all boredom is to call Remus," the blond said dryly.

"Naturally," said James solemnly.

"You have to admit, that was pretty funny," Lily said, still chuckling to herself. "Those poor kids are probably scarred for life now."

"Thank you, thank you," said Sirius. From his sitting position, he bowed until his nose brushed the grass.

Grumbling half-heartedly about humor at his expense, Remus lay back against the ground and stared up at the sky. It was deep blue and cloudless, and he felt as though he could lie there for hours, just staring, reveling in the inexplicable peacefulness of it. Then something warm on his arm distracted him; he glanced down to see that Sirius had just laid on it, and was now staring at the sky as well. Remus bit back a smile and reminded his heart to behave itself.

The five seventh years stayed there for some time without saying a word. At one point, Remus looked over to see James and Lily holding hands, playing with each other's fingers, both of their eyes closed. He felt momentarily envious, and then returned his gaze to the sky once more. He could feel Sirius breathing softly at his shoulder: in and out, in and out, inhale, exhale, inhale...

"Oh, wait!" James exclaimed suddenly; both Sirius and Remus flinched at the noise. "I forgot! I wanted to borrow your Charms notes!"

"Way to ruin the peace and quiet, Jamie-boy," Sirius reprimanded. He sat up and rolled his neck from side to side, cracking it. His hair was rumpled in the back, and it took Remus a remarkable amount of self-restraint not to fix it. He wanted Sirius to lie down again.

"They're on the table in front of the couch, closest to the boys' staircase," he said, closing his eyes quickly for the purpose of looking too relaxed to be bothered with going to get them himself.

"Thanks, mate," James said. Lily protested when he tried to get up, and, in the end, she followed him back to the castle, leaving Sirius, Remus, and Peter to themselves.

Silence returned. To Remus's covert joy, Sirius resumed his place on the werewolf's arm. The black-haired boy picked up a twig and began to poke at the ground absently. Finally Peter said, "So, um, what did you guys think of that test in Transfiguration?"

Sirius and Remus looked at each other, eyebrows raised. Peter had always been the one of the Marauders who couldn't stand silences unless they were obviously desired.

"It was the same as every other Transfiguration test we've ever had," Sirius said, yawning for effect. "Painfully easy."

Remus gave Sirius a reproachful look. "What did you think of it, Peter?"

"Well, question seventeen was rather tough; I wasn't really sure what she was asking..." Peter trailed off, gazing in the direction of the lake. "Oh, there's Will Laurington! I think I'll go ask him about it!"

"Bye, Pete," Remus called. Then he sat up and cuffed Sirius lightly on the top of the head.

"What was that for?" Sirius groaned, sitting up too and rubbing his head vigorously.

"You know he's been really quiet lately," said Remus. "You could have at least encouraged him to talk, instead of shooting him down without a moment's hesitation."

Sirius actually looked repentant, and Remus's heart began to splutter. "Sorry, Moony. But he could have chosen a more interesting topic. I mean, a test? Come on!"

Remus laughed. "Okay. What would you rather talk about?"

"Oh, I dunno," Sirius shrugged. "Something more interesting than school. The perfection of my character, perhaps?"

"I'm afraid you would bore everyone to death with that subject, Pads," Remus teased.

Sirius gave him an affronted look. "Are you saying my character is flawed?"

"Well, your ego could do with some deflating..." Remus had to duck when Sirius threw a handful of grass at him. "And you could do with demonstrating some friendly compassion once and a while. Oh, and a little less time spent in front of your mirror might do you some good. But aside from that-"

"Moony! You wound me!" gasped Sirius. He fell dramatically back into the grass, closing his eyes and playing dead.

"I'm sorry," Remus said, faking sincerity and fighting the urge to laugh. "That was uncalled for. I apologize."

"Apology accepted."

The two boys lay there, listening to the light breeze rustling the leaves of the trees. Remus closed his eyes and tried to focus on how it felt to have Sirius lying less than a foot away from him. It did happen regularly, but Remus could never seem to memorize the sensation, and it was one of his favorites.

"Prongs and Lily-flower seem happy," Sirius observed, breaking the silence. The sudden shift from mischievous to pensive caught Remus off guard. Almost instinctively, he opened his eyes to glance over at his black-haired companion. Sirius's eyes were still closed, but now he felt calm, thoughtful.

"Yes, they do," agreed Remus.

"I was kind of surprised, actually," said Sirius. "I didn't expect she would ever say yes."

"None of us did," Remus pointed out.

"I know. I'm just... surprised, I guess. Yeah. Surprised. They seem really good for each other, y'know?"

"Yeah," said Remus, trying not to let the wistfulness slip into his voice. Sirius went on.

"I always thought there wasn't anything between them. It was just James being obsessed, and they wouldn't ever work. But then they got together, and now– they both seem different. Happier. They just fit. And it makes me wonder..."

"Wonder what?" Remus prompted.

"I don't know," Sirius said. "What if you don't find the right person? Or what if you do find them, and it's right for you but it isn't for them? Or what if it's right and they won't ever believe that it is? What if you pass your whole life with the right person right under your nose and neither of you even realizes it?"

Remus took a deep breath. "Serious thoughts?" he asked, smiling softly.

Sirius smirked. "It is my name, after all."

"Ha. Ha," Remus said sarcastically. A piece of Sirius's hair had fallen into his face again, and this time the blond acted on the compulsion to push it away. "You know, I think you would realize it before it went that far. I think you would know."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. I do."

"Good." Sirius smiled and opened his eyes. "How'd you get to be so smart, Moony?"

"I read books," Remus said dryly. "You really ought to try it sometime. It does wonders for one's vocabulary."

"Ah, vocabulary, shmocabulary," Sirius said, interlocking his fingers and stretching his arms over his head. "What do you say we go up to the common room and look for those silly, young lovers? We can't leave them on their own for too long; that would be positively _nice _of us."

"Sometimes I wonder how you've managed to live this long, as troublesome as you are," Remus said. Sirius responded by sticking out his tongue at him.

They stood up and began to amble slowly towards the castle, enjoying the weather and the afternoon sunlight. Remus found himself wishing that it were still Saturday, and that they had one more day off to look forward too. He still hadn't finished that essay for Transfiguration and...

Horrified, Remus froze in his tracks. He had put his letter to Sirius in the pile with his Charms notes. And he had sent James to retrieve those same, exact Charms notes. Which most likely meant that James had found the letter.

"Uh, Sirius?" he said quickly, making up the lie off the top of his head. "I, um, I just realized that I didn't finish my Potions essay, and you know, it's due tomorrow... do you mind if I run ahead?"

Sirius laughed. "Of course I don't. Go on and be studious. You wouldn't be Moony if you weren't."

Remus mumbled a hasty thank you and sprinted off for the Gryffindor tower as if his life depended on it.

* * *

By the time he arrived in the common room, Remus was exhausted, panicky and rather short on air. James was nowhere in sight, but he spotted Lily sitting in one of the chairs and made a beeline for her.

"Where's James?" he said in lieu of a greeting.

Lily frowned, looking up from her book. "What?"

"I said, where's James?" Remus repeated breathlessly.

"What, no 'hello Lily, it's lovely to see your bright, shining face this afternoon'?" she asked.

"Lily, either you know where he is or you don't," he said, fighting to remain calm. "Which is it?"

Lily cocked her head to one side, considering Remus as if he were a lab specimen. Finally she said, "He's in your dorm; where else?"

Remus swore under his breath, turned around, and headed straight for the staircase. The stairs he took three at a time, almost tripping over the last set in his haste. There was still the possibility that somehow he was wrong, that somehow the letter had been in a different pile of notes and that James hadn't seen it. But Remus knew as soon as he entered the dorm that he was hoping for the impossible; James was sitting on his bed, Remus's notes splayed across his lap, reading a single piece of creased parchment.

"James, you-" Remus began, but he didn't need to go any further. The moment James looked up and saw Remus in the doorway, his eyes widened.

"I, um-" he broke off, closed his eyes, adjusted his glasses on the bridge of his nose. "I'm sorry, Remus. I didn't know, and then I thought that maybe it was a part of your notes, so I opened it, and I had no idea, and... shit, I'm so sorry!"

Remus blinked. "You read it," he said blankly.

"Yeah," James nodded.

Swallowing, Remus sank to the ground and stared at the wall, unable to think. Everything felt so surreal, like he was fast asleep and dreaming. If that was the case, he desperately hoped he would wake up soon.

"What is it?" came a female voice from behind him. Both he and James jumped.

"Lily, what are you doing here?" Remus asked, his voice jumping up an octave. His situation seemed to have just gone from bad to worse.

"I was curious," the redhead said simply. "What's the big deal? What did James read?"

"Nothing," James said swiftly, stuffing the letter under his pillow.

Lily's eyes narrowed. "Nothing?" she repeated skeptically.

James didn't answer. Lily looked at Remus, who was sitting on the floor in an unmistakable state of shock, and at James, who was trying to position himself in front of his pillow as if to hide the evidence. Remus could see the wheels turning in her mind. He watched in horror, still unable to convince his limbs to move, as she pounced on James and started to tickle him mercilessly. While James was trying to fend her off, he neglected his guard of the letter and Lily was able pull it out. She flung herself to the other side of the room, shoved the letter in front of her nose, and read as fast as she could.

Not ten seconds had passed before she squealed and began to jump up and down on the balls of her feet. James and Remus looked at each other in astonishment.

"YES!" she screamed. "Oh my God, I _knew_ it! I _knew_ it! Yes, yes, YES!"

"You _what_?" James gasped.

"I knew it!" she crowed again. "I just _knew_ Remus was in lo-"

Both of the boys leaped at her, but James got there first; he threw his hand in front of her mouth, effectively silencing her.

"If it's not too much trouble, can we please try _not_ to announce it to the entire Gryffindor tower?" Remus asked with exasperation. Lily glanced back and forth between the two boys and then nodded. James took his hand back.

"When are you going to tell him?" she asked immediately. Remus cringed.

"I'm not," he said shortly.

"But you have to!" Lily whined.

"No, I do not 'have to,'" said Remus firmly. "I see absolutely no reason why I have to, and I'm not going to. And _what_ was all that about how you 'just knew'?"

Lily ducked her head guiltily. "Sorry. But I did! It was kind of obvious."

"Oh, Merlin," Remus groaned, dropping his head into his hands.

"No, Moony, it's okay," said James quickly. "Sirius hasn't got a clue. Believe me; he's way too dense to suspect anything."

The corner of Remus's mouth twisted up wryly. "I suppose you have a point," he conceded. Lily hid a giggle behind her hand. "So, are you guys okay with this, then?"

"Yeah!" said Lily with feeling.

"Of course we are," added James. "I've been okay with it for years."

"Years?" Remus's brow furrowed, and then he groaned again. "Oh no, not you too! Does _everyone_ know?"

"Well, I'm not sure if Pete's caught on yet," James said helpfully, running a hand through his hair.

"Somehow, I'm not reassured," said Remus. He sank into his own bed, picked up his pillow, and shoved it forcefully over his face. "If someone would be so good as to alert me when I wake up, I'm sure I would be much obliged."

"Oh, come on, Remus! It isn't that bad!" Lily objected, sitting down on the edge of his bed. "You two are, like, made for each other. I honestly can't believe neither of you has done anything about it yet."

"Correction," Remus mumbled from under his pillow. "Neither of us is planning to do anything about it. Sirius doesn't like me. At least, not in the same way that I do him."

Lily tutted. "What makes you so sure?"

"Only the rows and rows of women following him everywhere."

"Just because they follow him, doesn't mean he's interested," Lily said reasonably. Remus decided to ignore her.

"You know, Moons, he hasn't actually gone out with a bird since fifth year," James pointed out.

That was a meaningless remark on James' part. Of course Remus knew; he'd paid absurd attention to every date Sirius had ever gone on and closely analyzed every relationship Sirius had ever had. When the black-haired boy suddenly seemed to have given up on the whole institution, Remus had been particularly attentive, trying to figure out just what was going through Sirius's head. He learned nothing useful, though, and the matter still caused him some annoyance – at least if Sirius were still dating, Remus would have somewhat of an idea about his preferences.

"And just look at the way he treats you!" Lily exclaimed. "He's always showing off whenever you're around, and throwing himself all over you, and-"

"That's only because personal space is a foreign concept to his mind," Remus cut in.

"Yes, but he crosses the line so much more with you than with anyone else!" Lily said. She was sounding more and more enthusiastic with each point that she made. "And he has this cute little smile that I've never seen him use on anyone but you, and he has this weird habit of talking about you whenever you aren't there, and look at this afternoon for crying out loud! He was practically sleeping on you for forty-five minutes! And–"

"Wait! He talks about me?" Remus sat bolt upright, the pillow sliding into his lap. Then he grimaced and threw his hands over his face. "No! What am I saying? I take that back. I didn't say that. I'm not interested."

Lily grinned. "Oh, I think you are."

"No, I'm not. And regardless, _he_ most certainly isn't, and I refuse to let myself even consider otherwise." Lily opened her mouth, but Remus cut her off before she could speak. "And that is the end of this conversation, because I left Sirius at the front doors and he will most likely be arriving momentarily."

Lily squinted, studying Remus intently. Remus stared, unblinking, back at her. James looked back and forth between the two of them as if he were watching a tennis match. Finally the redhead smacked a slender fist against the palm of her hand, a determined glint in her eye.

"Remus, you aren't going to get anywhere unless you tell Sirius how you feel," she said. "And I'm going to help you do it."

"That really is unnecessary," Remus began to say, but Lily glared at him. He shrank back and fell silent.

"Well," she said. "Now that we're all on the same page, I'm off to the library! Oh, and I'm keeping this letter–" she held up the slightly crinkled piece of parchment in her hand, "–for research purposes. Hope you don't mind."

She disappeared in a swirl of long, red hair, leaving Remus and James to stare after her in bewilderment.

"When it doubt, go to the library," James said at last.

"You know," said Remus. "Under normal circumstances, I would agree with that statement full-heartedly."

James nodded. "What can I say? She's passionate." He smiled, and then glanced at the door to the rest of Gryffindor tower. "So, Moony: if I were you, I think I'd need a minute to myself after what just happened, to relax and think stuff over."

"That would be rather agreeable," Remus said.

"Indeed," said James. "So what's the plan? Shall I distract your laddy love?"

Remus looked at his spectacled friend in mild amusement. "If you wish. I'm sure you can think of something."

"Leave it to me," James smirked, and he departed for the common room. From his place on his bed, Remus could hear the boy shouting "oh Padfoot? Paddy Paddy Padfoot! Where are you?" as loud as he could, and probably garnering much more attention than was really called for. Sighing, Remus leaned back on his bed and stared at the ceiling, wondering how on earth he'd managed to get himself into this mess in the first place – and if there was any way to get himself out of it.

* * *

To Remus's immense relief, nothing else terribly out of the ordinary happened for the rest of the day. James kept his promise and kept Sirius busy until long after the sun had set, first proposing a game of Gobstones, then losing spectacularly and challenging him to two rematches – both of which James lost. Remus used the opportunity to work on his Transfiguration essay in peace, and, after several attempts, finally completed it. He had to admit: now that his secret wasn't so secret anymore, he was able to focus a bit more. Still, he went to bed as soon as his essay was finished, eager to avoid seeing James and Sirius when they came upstairs.

The next morning, however, was another story.

It began with Sirius throwing himself unceremoniously on top of Remus's bed, and consequently on top of Remus himself.

"Moony!" he whined. "Moony, make Prongs hurry up! He's hogging the shower!"

Remus moaned and attempted to roll over, but Sirius's weight on top of him made it rather difficult. "Sod off, Padfoot."

"But you have to make Prongs get out of the shower!" Sirius insisted.

"Why do _I_ have to do it?" Remus asked. "Make Wormtail do it. He's probably much more awake than I am, and will probably be able to accomplish a good deal more as such."

"But Wormtail has no authority!" Sirius protested. "Nobody listens to him."

Peter squeaked indignantly from across the room. "Padfoot, that was cold!"

"Sorry, Wormtail; you know it's true!"

"Yes, but you didn't have to say it!"

"Moony, please?" Sirius asked again, returning his attention to the boy underneath him.

"No. I'm truly sorry to disappoint you, but I'm not getting out of this bed. You're a big boy; you can do your own convincing people to get out of showers."

"Aww, Moony!" Sirius wiggled a little, making Remus want to both throw him across the room and snog him senseless. He suppressed both urges, but just barely.

"I said no. Make someone else do your dirty work."

"Or just don't do it at all," came James' voice. The two boys looked up to see that he had just left the bathroom, fully dressed, his wet hair plastered to his forehead. "The shower's free," he announced.

"Hooray!" Sirius cheered, promptly jumping off Remus and running in the direction of the now-empty bathroom. James stared after him until the bathroom door slammed shut. Then he raised his eyebrows suggestively at the werewolf, who groaned, rolled over (this time successfully), and shoved his head under his pillow.

"Don't. Say. Anything," he said, his voice slightly muffled.

"I wasn't going to," replied James, his voice too innocent for Remus to believe him.

"Say anything about what?" Peter asked.

James didn't answer. "I think I'm going down to breakfast," he said instead, stretching luxuriously. "Want to come?"

"Yeah, sure," Peter conceded. "What about you, Moony?"

"I'll be there in a minute. Just let me get dressed first."

"Alright."

James walked over to his bed, which was conveniently next to Remus's, to get his book bag; as he leaned down to grab it, he whispered in Remus's ear, "you know you're only staying because you want to see Sirius when he gets out of the shower."

Remus hit him.

After James and Peter left, Remus crawled out of bed and dressed himself. He had actually planned on waiting for Sirius, but now that he knew to expect harassment from James, he wanted to get down to the Great Hall as fast as he could. As a result, he dressed and packed his school things in near-record time.

"Hey, Padfoot!" he called. "We're going to breakfast!"

"'Kay!" Sirius called back. Remus slung his bag over his shoulder and made his way to the Great Hall. It took every once of willpower he had not to think about his grey-eyed friend back in their dorm. Every time he did, he wanted to bang his head against a wall.

Luckily, the hallways were mostly empty. The only person Remus met on his way was Xenophilius Lovegood, who was attempting to sell copies of his self-created school newspaper; Remus turned him down politely. When he arrived at the Great Hall, the sky shining through the ceiling was just as vibrant and blue as it had been the day before. Remus thought about walking right back out again and skipping breakfast in favor of spending the small amount of time before class started in the sun, but he decided against it. He wasn't sure if he could make it through the morning without at least a small meal.

The Hall was full of noisy, chattering students, but upon reaching the Gryffindor table, Remus discovered that one was conspicuously missing.

"Have you seen Lily?" James asked immediately as Remus sat down.

"No. Is she not here?"

"We haven't seen her," Peter said dryly. Obviously James had not been too calm about the absence of his girlfriend. Remus choked back laughter.

"Do you think she's sick?" James asked anxiously, peering around the Great Hall as if Lily would mysteriously pop out from behind the pitcher of orange juice on the Hufflepuff table if he looked hard enough.

"She probably just slept in," Remus told him, buttering a piece of toast. He was actually somewhat thankful that Lily wasn't there. At this rate, it seemed as if James would be too distracted to tease Remus at all.

Unfortunately, Remus's hopes were too high.

"So, Moony," said James significantly. "How was Padfoot when you left him?"

There were no walls nearby. Perhaps Remus would have to resort to banging his head against a table instead.

"I'm not sure, really," he said as serenely as he could manage. "I'm assuming that he's fine; I haven't actually spoken to him since you did."

"Oh." James looked rather put out, most likely because Remus hadn't blushed or stuttered or anything else of the sort. Peter looked confusedly between the two of them.

"And I believe I'm going to head to class now," said Remus, standing up. He had to think of a lie to explain his departure, and quickly. "I, um… I have to talk to Professor Vector before class starts; I had some questions about our last homework assignment."

"Alright." James had given up on tormenting Remus and was now searching for Lily again.

"Bye, Moony!" said Peter.

"See you, Wormtail," Remus replied. Poor Peter; he was always out of the loop. But that didn't mean that Remus was going to enlighten him. He walked away from the Gryffindor table at a brisk trot.

As soon as he was outside of the Great Hall, Remus leaned against the wall and took several deep breaths. He was getting the feeling that today was going to be extremely difficult, and he wasn't looking forward to it. Unfortunately, there wasn't much he could do about it, and if he just stood here worrying, Sirius was bound to show up and start to question him. Slightly annoyed, and even more apprehensive, Remus walked in the direction of his first class.

* * *

_A/N 2: Well, that was part one. There are three parts total, and I will probably post the next two within a few days of each other. Please feel free to point out any errors that you may notice (spelling, grammar, whatever), and I will correct them as soon as is humanly possible. Don't forget: reviews make the world go round!_


	2. Part 2

The Dangers of Writing a Love Letter, pt. 2

Since he had left breakfast early – half an hour early, in fact – Remus was the only person in the Arithmancy classroom. When he arrived, he sat down and pulled out a book from his school bag. His goal was to drown himself in the story and completely forget about the insanity of his life. He was fairly successful: he hardly even noticed as the classroom gradually filled up with other students. He did, however, notice when Lily arrived; she announced her presence by dropping a large and rather weighty pile of library books on to his desk.

The blond glanced up at her, took one look at the mountain of library materials, and lowered his own, slightly battered copy of _Life with the Bloodsuckers: an Autobiography,_ by Vincent Laurence. "Um, good morning?" he said hesitantly.

"Good morning!" Lily replied cheerily.

"Is something going on that I should know about?" Remus questioned, examining the titles. They were all bizarre things like _101 Ways to Discover Secrets _or _A Complete Collection of Wonderfully Sneaky Spells. _

"What?" asked Lily blankly. "Oh – these. I've been researching."

Remus frowned, confused, and then he caught a glimpse of the title _How to Tell Someone You Love Them (With Magic) _and suddenly everything was made clear. "Oh, no."

"Oh, yes," Lily grinned. "And I learned some pretty interesting stuff, too."

"Well, hurrah for you," Remus said. "By all means, feel free to keep your knowledge to yourself. I will not feel hurt in the slightest should you decide not to share." Turning away from the girl, he stared at the blackboard at the front of the classroom as if it were the most captivating thing he'd ever seen.

"Now, wait just a minute-" Lily began, but she was interrupted by the entrance of Professor Vector and the start of class.

The day's lesson was, to Remus's disappointment, not a very difficult one. They were merely required to copy down notes as Professor Vector enlightened them on the many different properties of numbers, leaving Lily plenty of time to continue their discussion in hushed tones during class. Remus was vaguely annoyed with the whole situation. Having been close friends with Lily for several years, he had known that she could be rather determined at times – he had just never expected to become the subject of that determination.

About ten minutes into class, Lily leaned over and tapped a finger lightly on the desktop. "Look, I found some really useful information in those books," she hissed.

"That's wonderful, Lily, but I already told you: it really isn't necessary," Remus whispered back.

"But it is!" Lily paused when the girl sitting the front of them glared at her, and then continued in a quieter tone. "You'll never do anything on your own; you're absolutely hopeless! If I don't help you along, nothing will ever happen!"

"And who says we want anything to happen?" Remus countered.

Lily rolled her eyes. "Would you stop with that already? Of course you want something to happen! What would you rather do: live the rest of your life in regret that you never had this relationship, or spend the rest of it having the pants snogged off you by your soul mate?" Remus opened his mouth to reply, but she waved a hand at him impatiently. "Don't bother answering; that was a rhetorical question."

Remus fought the urge to bang his head against the table. "Lily, I think you're taking this a bit far-"

She ignored him completely. "So after dinner, I think you and I should meet in the library to go over these books. I already marked several pages that looked interesting, but I've only glanced over them; I haven't had time to do a thorough reading yet."

"But-"

"No, I will not tolerate refusal! You will be at the library promptly after dinner, or I will know why."

Once Arithmancy had ended, Remus practically ran from the classroom lest Lily should try to accost him again. She _was_ in his next class, Defense Against the Dark Arts, but since she normally sat with her friend Alice – almost on the opposite side of the room from where the Marauders sat – Remus figured he would be safe.

Sirius, James, and Peter were already in the classroom when Remus got there. Sirius was sitting backwards in his chair in order to have a rather lively discussion with James, who was sitting at the desk behind him. Sitting next to James was Peter, who was looking back and forth between the two and nodding occasionally. As Remus took his usual seat next to Sirius, James shot him another meaningful look. Remus seriously contemplated getting back up and walking out of the class.

"Hey, Moony?" said Sirius, turning around to greet him. "Is it possible to for humans fly to Mars?"

"No," replied Remus simply.

Sirius frowned. "Damn."

"I told you so!" James shouted triumphantly, pointing an accusatory finger at Sirius.

"But if you could just find a spell that would last long enough..." Sirius suggested.

"But it isn't just a matter of being able to fly – there's a certain lack of atmosphere to consider."

Sirius did consider it, but only for a short moment. "Even with a broomstick, though–"

James cut him off impatiently. "You still wouldn't be able to breathe!"

"Say you found a spell that made it possible for you to breathe in outer space?"

"Even if you did, there's no way it would last long enough."

"But what if–"

Someone had to act like the adult eventually, Remus thought. Shaking his head, he waved a hand in between the two boys to get their attention. "Alright gentlemen, that is quite enough. We're here for Defense Against the Dark Arts, I believe, not debate. Padfoot, I'm sorry to have to inform you, but you can't fly to Mars. Prongs, please stop provoking him; it's absurdly rude."

Sirius shrugged in a graceful defeat. "Eh, it's alright."

James, however, crossed his arms across his chest, glowering. Then he spotted Lily across the room.

"Lily, my darling! You're alive!" The bespectacled boy nearly tripped over his own feet in his haste to run to his girlfriend. Remus and Sirius and Peter all exchanged amused glances.

"Tantrum averted," Peter concluded happily.

* * *

Free time, Remus thought, was extremely pleasant. Or rather, it was extremely pleasant when it involved getting away from the insanity that was Lily and James of late. An hour and a half long free period before Charms with neither of the two to bother him seemed like heaven to Remus. He had no idea how he was going to last through the rest of the day, what with Lily's determination and James's eyebrow raising, and if he didn't give in, who knew how long this behavior could last. Remus was trying particularly hard not to think about the rest of the week; whenever he did, it became nearly impossible to resist the urge to crawl under his bed and stay there.

Here, though, was a wonderful, relaxing free period, and Remus was resolved to enjoy himself. After digging through the collection of books under his bed, he pulled out a well-loved and rather worn copy of _The Fellowship of the Ring_ and headed for the common room. Most of the Gryffindors were in class; the only other occupants of the room were a couple sixth year girls, and a lone seventh year who was sitting at a table attempting to build a Muggle house of cards. Every so often a card would slip and the whole house would collapse, leaving the boy to curse and start over from the beginning.

Remus had intended to read, but from the moment he sat down on the couch, he was distracted. There was a grey among the colors used on the cover of his book that he was prepared to swear was the exact color of Sirius's eyes. Which, of course, got him to thinking about Sirius. What if Lily was right about him? What if he actually had feelings for Remus?

No, he couldn't. Sirius had never been one to hide his feelings; if he liked Remus, surely the blond would have found out by now. He flipped his book open to a random page, but only for the purpose of looking occupied. No, he was sure that he would know if Sirius liked him. Since Remus hadn't been ravished to within an inch of his life, the black-haired boy obviously didn't feel anything for him. Logically, that meant there was no reason for Remus to admit to anything.

Remus was so caught up in his internal quandary that didn't realize he had company. When he heard a familiar voice only a couple inches from the left side of his face, he started violently; he had forgotten that he wasn't the only one of the Marauders with this period free.

"'Silence fell again.'" Sirius had sat down next to Remus and was leaning over his shoulder to read out of the open book. "'Frodo, even in that fair house, looking out upon a sunlit valley filled with the noise of clear waters, felt a dread darkness in his heart.' Moony, what are you reading?"

"_The Lord of the Rings_," Remus replied, still slightly breathless. "Are you purposefully trying to scare me out of my wits, or was that just for your own, personal amusement?"

"Sorry. You just looked like you were on another planet or something. I thought I should call you back." Sirius paused, and then his eyes lit up and he asked with some excitement, "were you on Mars? Can you tell me what it looked like?"

"Red," Remus replied, rolling his eyes. "Very red."

Sirius pouted. "Moony, you're no fun!"

"Whoever said that I was supposed to be fun?" Remus countered playfully.

"I did," Sirius informed him. He pulled away and leaned back against the couch, but his eyes remained on Remus. The werewolf felt as though he was being studied, and it made the hairs on the back of his neck tingle. He was struck with a sudden fear that Sirius was somehow going to catch on to his feelings – that something in his own eyes would give him away. Unsure of what else to do, he stuck his nose into his book and attempted to look like he was reading. He could still feel Sirius's eyes, though, and he wished irrationally that he were invisible. At last Sirius said, "Is everything okay?"

Remus almost cringed. "Yeah," he said, trying his best to sound sincere. "Everything's fine. Why do you ask?"

"It's just... you seem kind of stressed."

"No," Remus shook his head. "No, everything's fine."

"Oh. Okay." Sirius's gazed wandered, and Remus tried to remind himself to breathe. The seventh year's card tower fell again, and he swore loudly. When Sirius looked up again, he wore a mischievous grin that Remus was quite familiar with. "So, my dear Moony: were you entirely determined to stay indoors this afternoon?"

Remus played along, feigning thoughtfulness. "Well, that depends. Do you have something else in mind?"

"I wondered if perhaps you might do me the very great honor of accompanying me on a stroll around the lake."

"Oh, I don't know," said Remus slowly, biting his lip.

"What must I do to convince you?" Sirius asked, fluttering his eyelashes dramatically and making it very difficult for Remus to keep up the act without laughing. He leaned back slightly, balancing his chin on the fist of one hand, and gazed seriously at his companion.

"I find groveling to be rather compelling, actually."

At this, the black haired boy groaned and threw himself theatrically to his knees, proclaiming loudly that he should not get up until Remus consented to go with him. With his face to the ground, he didn't notice Remus carefully rise up from the couch and start tiptoeing towards the door. In fact, Sirius looked up only just in time to see the werewolf climbing through the portrait hole. Shouting indignantly, he jumped up and took off after Remus, who ran for all he was worth.

The two boys raced the entire way down to the grounds. Remus won, but just by a hair. He and Sirius collapsed unceremoniously onto the grass as soon as they reached their destination.

"Good thing Filch wasn't around," panted Sirius, running a hand through his hair and causing it to stick up in the back.

"Agreed," Remus said with feeling. He was extremely conscious of the way Sirius's chest rose and fell with each breath. Quickly, he closed his eyes to keep himself from staring. Even though he couldn't see, he felt Sirius sit up.

"How deep do you reckon the lake is, Moony?" he asked.

Remus's nose scrunched up as he thought. "Pads, I haven't the slightest clue. Hundreds of feet deep, most likely. You did want to walk around it, correct?"

"That is correct, O wise and most reasonable of men." Sirius stood, and Remus opened his eyes once more, holding a hand up to shield them from the sunlight. "And if I might be permitted to help you to your feet...?"

"You may," Remus said, chuckling, and took the hand that was offered. His own fingers tingled. Sirius held the contact only for as long as it took to pull Remus up, and then shoved both of his hands deep into the pockets of his trousers. He led the way as they began to walk towards the water.

The entire circle around the lake was too long for them to actually walk the whole thing; the other side of the lake wasn't even visible from where they stood. But Sirius had often referred to merely walking back and forth along the edge of the lake as walking "around" it, so that was what they did. For several back and forths, they walked in silence. Remus, to his dismay, found himself contemplating what might happen if he were to confess to Sirius right now. He couldn't help himself; he imagined scenario after scenario, each more far-fetched and ridiculous than the one before it. Entirely caught up in his daydreams, he started when he heard Sirius say his name.

"Remus? Reeeemus? Are you alive in there?" Sirius was waving a hand in front of the werewolf's face, his grey eyes concerned.

Remus's head snapped up and he halted in his tracks. He and Sirius stared at each other, each waiting for the other to say something. Remus blinked once, twice.

"Huh?" he finally managed to say.

Sirius smirked. "He's alive!" he shouted jubilantly. "Did you hear that, Tree? Robin? Lake? Can you believe it? Moony lives!"

"Oh, shut it, you," Remus said, cuffing his friend lightly on the shoulder. He was embarrassed; yet again, he had been left speechless. He was still grinning, though – a fact that didn't escape Sirius's notice.

"Sorry," Sirius said, without sounding the least bit repentant. "It's just that I tried to ask you a question and you didn't even look up. It was kind of eerie."

Remus could feel the blush spreading across his cheeks. "What did you ask me?"

"If you think we'll ever be able to convince Prongs to do a prank again," Sirius repeated.

"Oh. I'm not really sure. It doesn't seem very likely at this point."

"But that's bad," Sirius moaned. "We have to figure out what our final prank at Hogwarts will be, and we can't do a final Marauder's prank without Prongs! We wouldn't be the Marauders!"

"A final prank?"

"Yeah, you know, like going out with a bang. It's out last year, and after all we've done, I think we deserve a spot in Hogwarts legend."

"You're thinking about this _now_?" Remus shook his head, laughing. "Padfoot, it's only October. We have months and months and, in fact, almost the whole school year ahead of us before graduation!"

"No harm in being prepared," Sirius shrugged.

Remus stared at him. "Now, if you could put that sort of attitude to work in regards to your homework..."

Sirius laughed loudly. Stooping, he picked up a small, abnormally round rock and threw it at the lake. He curved his arm in just the right way to make it skip. It bounced seven times, and landed at least twenty feet from the shore.

"So do you think we could get James in on an end-of -the-year prank?" he asked, still watching the ripples from his stone.

"We might have more luck with that than with your average, without-occasion affair," Remus said thoughtfully. "I reckon he would be a lot more interested in the prospect of a grand exit. We could probably persuade him."

"Good," said Sirius. He made to start walking again, and then froze, looking out at the water again. "We've got company," he announced, smiling. "Look."

Remus followed his gaze to the middle of the lake, and he saw what his companion meant immediately. The giant squid was swimming towards the shore, its head poking up above the water to greet them.

Sirius waved at it. After glancing around quickly, he dropped to his hand and knees and started to crawl, picking up small rocks and twigs, building a collection. As soon as Remus realized what his companion was doing, he laughed and knelt as well to help him. Soon they had a small pile assembled on the ground at their feet. Then Sirius began to pick up one item at a time and throw them at the squid, aiming for its head. To Remus's amusement, the squid seemed to be playing a game with them; it ducked whenever a stick came its way, but hit the rocks with its tentacles, which sent them flying back towards shore and made it the boys' turn to duck.

The game continued for some time until the squid appeared to get bored and swam away. The two boys looked at each other, eyebrows raised. Remus dropped the last of the sticks he had been holding.

"We probably ought to head back," he said reluctantly. "I'm guessing that it's almost time for Charms by now."

"Oh, school!" Sirius sighed heavily. "The bane of my existence! Do you know, I think that someday I just won't show up to class at all. That would be immensely satisfying."

Remus shook his head. "One would think you would be more eager to be educated. For someone so eternally curious, you whine about class much more than you ought." Sirius opened his mouth to respond, but he was cut off by a raised hand from Remus. "And we will not discuss this any more right now, because if we do, we'll never make it to class on time."

"Right," Sirius said with a smile. "Let us depart, then."

He led the way back to the castle, whistling to himself the whole way. Remus didn't bother to ask what the tune was; he knew, from asking many times before, that Sirius never whistled a specific song, only whatever popped into his head. Instead he simply listened, enjoying being in Sirius's company.

When they arrived at the common room, James was there to meet them. "Greetings, my fellow Marauders!" he called. "And where, pray tell, have you been all afternoon?"

"At the lake," replied Sirius. "Did you know that the giant squid likes rocks?"

James blinked, looking owlish behind his glasses. "I had no idea," he said dryly. He looked over at Remus, who simply shrugged.

"Well it does," Sirius continued. "I think I'm going to name it Justine."

"I thought you named it Harold," James asked, his brow furrowing.

"He did," said Remus. "It was called Harold in third year and Delia in fifth."

"Oh?" Sirius said, a small degree of shock to his voice. "I think you might be right." He frowned for a moment, as if trying to recall a memory long since forgotten. Then he continued on enthusiastically. "That may have been the case before, but after spending the afternoon with it, I really think Justine would be much more appropriate. Slightly prissy; rather regal; a bit playful, maybe. Don't you agree, Moony?"

"I have no comment."

"Pads, maybe you ought to make up your mind about whether it's male or female first," James suggested.

"And maybe we ought to head down to the Charms classroom before we run late," Remus said before Sirius could answer. The two other boys agreed, and they all gathered their things and left Gryffindor tower.

* * *

When Remus arrived at the library later that night, he found Lily at a table near the back. She was staring out of the window next to her, her fingers tapping absently on the tabletop as she did so. As Remus approached, she heard his footsteps and turned around.

"Remus! You showed!" she cried, sounding elated.

"Only because I knew that if I didn't, you would hunt me down and hurt me," Remus told her. She shrugged in agreement.

"So here's the collection." She turned to wave her hands at the accumulation of books on the table in front of her. Remus stared at them apprehensively.

"Do you actually intend to read all of those?"

"With your help, of course."

"Oh, God." Remus dropped his head into his hands. "Why am I here?"

"Because you didn't want to be hexed all the way to next Thursday," Lily reminded him. Then, as if she were afraid that he might change his mind if given the opportunity, she stood up, placed her hands on his shoulders, and gently forced him to sit down on the chair across from hers. He complied without a struggle.

"Alright, you start with these-" she said, indicating one pile of books, "-and I'll start with these. Together we should be done by curfew."

"Lovely," Remus drawled. "Absolutely brilliant. And what am I supposed to be reading in search of?"

"Oh, I don't know. Anything that inspires you." Lily lifted the first book off of her pile and flipped it open.

"Anything that inspires me," Remus echoed. He copied the redhead and picked up the first book from his own pile. "Somehow I feel like we're going to be looking for long, long time."

"Would you shut it already?" Lily snapped. "Just think of this as a learning experience. You could at least attempt to muster some enthusiasm."

Remus tried. He really did. But the whole thing seemed like the most monumental waste of time imaginable. Not to mention, the spells, charms, and incantations described in the books were absolutely ridiculous. After scanning pages and pages of useless information, Remus groaned and collapsed onto the binding of _A Muggle's Guide to Love in the Magical World._

"Lily, this is preposterous!" he cried. "Reading this stuff makes me feel like a thirteen-year-old witch, which is impressive in itself, since I never was one in the first place!"

Lily rolled her eyes and exhaled heavily. "Here, Remus, look at this." She moved her chair over next to his and placed a large, ornately bound book on the table before him. "This might be useful. 'One surefire way to get a positive reaction from the object of your affections is to sing them a love song. Here are several charms that you can use to make your voice sound dreamy and romantic–'"

"No."

"Okay, what about this: 'Looking to capture the affections of a lucky someone? Find the perfect gift using this helpful charm; it uses the personality of the person in question to lead you to the perfect present.'"

"No, Lily."

"Fine," the redhead huffed. "How about this then? 'If you want to tell someone you love them but are terrified of rejection, use this highly effective spell in advance – it will tell you precisely what the person feels about you at that exact moment!' Wow, this is the most brilliant one I've seen all– Oh wait. It says there's a twenty percent margin of error. Blast."

Remus ran a hand through his hair in irritation. "Lily, this is moronic. How is any of this supposed to help me?"

"Where's your scholarly spirit?" Lily responded. "You'll never know if you don't look. Somewhere in all of these books there's got to be _something_ useful!"

"I wouldn't be too sure," Remus mumbled. Then he sighed. "Lil, can I please go back to the tower? I've been here for hours, and I have a suspicion that my presence here won't make your research progress any faster."

Lily opened her mouth, and then closed it again. "You're probably right. Go on, if you must. I won't harass you about helping me any more. At least, I'll try not to." She grinned. "But keep in mind, that doesn't mean that I'm going to stop."

"Believe me, I wasn't expecting it." Remus stood up, looking back at the redhead cautiously. "Just don't stay up too late, alright? If you don't get enough sleep, you're much quicker to lose your temper. My love life isn't worth it."

Lily just shook her head, smiling. "If I come across anything helpful, I'll be sure to let you know."

"Right." The werewolf started to walk away, and then froze and turned back. "Oh, and please try to spend some time with other people too. James, in particular. You know he worries about you."

Now Lily laughed. "Are you actually going to leave, then, or would you prefer to stay?"

"I'm leaving," said Remus quickly. He departed at a brisk trot.

On his walk back to Gryffindor tower, Remus contemplated Lily's obstinacy. It seemed to him that she was always the happiest when she had a goal, something she was trying to do or learn or discover. Whatever it was would become somewhat of an obsession for her until she accomplished it. The last goal had been figuring out where Remus went every month, and why he did so; it only took her about a week of almost constant study to piece everything together. The goal before that had been to figure out the origins of the Marauders' nicknames, and the one before that had been to figure out what the Marauder's Map was and how it worked. Lily was one of the most intelligent people Remus had ever met, and if she set her mind to something, she usually ended up achieving it.

Maybe he ought to just tell Sirius how he felt. It couldn't be that difficult, could it? And if he said something now, he would save everyone so much trouble: Lily wouldn't have to kill herself trying to find helpful spells; he himself wouldn't have to fret about someone catching on; James wouldn't have to die when Remus killed him for one meaningful look too many. It would be really nice to have everything out in the open, to not have to hide anything anymore... But no. The more Remus thought, the more he knew that he couldn't do it. He was sure that he would rather jump off the astronomy tower than return to the common room and ask Sirius for a private conversation. Just the thought made him shudder. What would he do if Sirius rejected him? No, _when_ Sirius rejected him. He couldn't imagine Sirius – silly, wonderful, beautiful Sirius – ever liking him back.

Dejected, Remus climbed through the portrait hole and made his way up to his dorm. He was rather thankful that Sirius and James had Quidditch practice tonight. Peter had probably gone with them to watch, and that meant that he had the room all to himself for at least a little while. That was surely enough time to organize his thoughts and calm himself down enough to appear normal. The last thing he needed was Sirius asking more questions.

* * *

Remus was utterly exhausted. He suspected that he'd gotten three hours of sleep the night before, at most. The entire night he had lain awake, listening to his roommates breathing (and Peter's light snoring) and wondering what to do about Sirius. Whenever he did manage to fall asleep – which was only for short amounts of time – he had horrid nightmares in which Lily spiked his morning orange juice with Veritaserum to make him confess his love to Sirius. He knew that the redhead would never do anything so extreme, but the nightmares felt so real that he woke up ready to shriek. Towards the end of the night, he gave up on the idea of trying to sleep and simply sat up in bed, reading his vampire book by wand-light.

The result was that he practically slept through Ancient Runes. Lily seemed to sense that he was under some stress, and she let him doze, only poking him in the side whenever the professor wrote anything on the board that required being copied down. The rest of the Marauders, upon seeing his condition when he trudged into Transfiguration, helped him as much as they could. They almost got caught when Professor McGonagall called on Remus, asking him to read a part of his notes to the class. Sirius's knowledge of a useful charm that could mimic handwriting saved them, but just barely. After that, Remus forced himself to focus enough to at least take down his own notes.

In Remus's mind, lunch was a respite from hard labor. Bleary-eyed, he followed his companions into the Great Hall and took his normal seat next to Sirius. There he was able to lay his head on the table and let his mind go blank. It was absolute and utter bliss.

The only one to notice that he hadn't actually fallen asleep was Lily. "Why don't you take a nap?" she suggested. She had taken his advice after all and had joined the Marauders for lunch. James was sitting next to her, his arm around her waist and a goofy grin on his face.

"Because if I sleep during the day, it'll only mess up my sleep schedule even more," Remus told her. The rest of the Marauders jumped when they heard his voice, having all believed him to be dozing.

"So you're purposefully trying to stay awake, then?" Sirius asked, leaning over the pitcher of pumpkin juice to look at him. There was a sly hint to his tone that Remus did not entirely trust.

"Yes?" he replied hesitantly, turning the word into a question.

"I see," said Sirius thoughtfully. He stared down at the plate of food in front of him for a moment, and when he looked up again, his expression was determined. "Well then, as a fellow Marauder, I declare it my duty to ensure that you remain alert for as long as you wish. I will do everything in my power to keep you awake, my dear Moony."

"I'm not entirely sure that I want your help, Padfoot," Remus replied. Sirius looked crestfallen.

"Why not?"

"Because last time you tried to keep me from falling asleep, your solution was to charm a piece of my clothing into a popinjay every time my head started to droop."

Sirius ducked his head, trying to cover up his laughter. "It worked, didn't it?"

"Yeah, until Professor Binns noticed that there were birds flying around the ceiling of his classroom," James interjected, grinning widely. "Threw him for a loop, that did. I don't reckon he even noticed that Moony was half-naked."

"He was only missing his shoes, his socks, and his shirt," Peter pointed out from Remus's left.

"Exactly," said James. "Half-naked."

"You have to admit, though: the fact that Binns spotted the birds was impressive enough," Lily said sensibly. "Asking him to notice Remus's lack of clothing as well would have been too much to expect."

"True," James and Peter agreed simultaneously. Lily began to run her fingers through James's hair, and he tilted his head to give her better access.

"As amusing as that story may be," said Remus, trying desperately to get the discussion away from his state of dress, "it does absolutely nothing to convince me that Sirius should be allowed to keep me awake. If anything, it does the exact opposite."

"Please, Moony?" Sirius turned the full force of his grey eyes on Remus. The werewolf marveled at the fact that even when he was half-dead with exhaustion, his pulse still picked up and his breath still hitched. He tried his best to look indifferent.

"Perhaps I _might_ be persuaded to change my mind," he said slowly. "Possibly. Maybe. Don't get your hopes up."

Sirius smiled and Remus felt his heart stop. He glanced over to see James and Lily watching him. Lily wore a curious expression on her face, but James was grinning. He glanced over at Lily, and they raised their eyebrows at each other. Then James looked back to make sure he had Remus's attention and mouthed "_how exactly will he be keeping you awake?_" Remus barely resisted groaning. He thanked whoever was watching out for him that Sirius hadn't been looking in their direction.

Time passed much too slowly for Remus's liking. During the rest of his afternoon classes, he wanted nothing more than to lay his head down on his desk and pass out. Somehow he managed to keep himself conscious. It might have had something to do with Sirius throwing things at him when the professor wasn't looking. Mostly he threw balled-up pieces of parchment; Remus suspected that by the time they were working on homework that night, he would have to loan some of his own parchment to Sirius. He also suspected that Sirius was doing it solely for kicks; anytime Remus looked up to glare at him, he would wave back and begin to snigger uncontrollably.

After dinner, Remus did his homework in a stupor. The common room was noisier than usual, but strangely, Remus used this to force himself into an almost trance-like state of focus. He surprised himself by completing almost all of his assignments. He was just starting on the reading for Herbology when Sirius, who had been talking to Frank Longbottom, came over and settled himself on the arm of his chair.

"Come out to the Quidditch pitch with me, Moony," he said.

Remus narrowed his eyes at Sirius. "Why should I?" he asked cautiously.

"Because you love me," replied Sirius simply. This was a very normal, Sirius-like thing to say, but it caught Remus entirely off guard. He choked, managing to turn it into a coughing fit just in time.

"You alright?" Sirius asked, with some concern.

"Yeah, fine," Remus said, not looking at him. Instead he watched a group of fifth year girls standing bickering at the stairway to the girls' dormitories.

"And I did promise to keep you awake, didn't I?" Sirius went on. "I reckon some fresh air and exercise would be good for you."

Remus gave his friend a skeptical look. "No one else will go with you, will they?"

"Moony, how can you assume such a thing! I came here with the express purpose of asking you to come with me!" Remus continued to gaze at Sirius, who shifted in his seat. "I did! Okay, I might have asked James first, but I was going to ask you too, regardless of what he said. I'm not asking you because he said no!"

Remus laughed and stood up, stretching. "You are completely absurd, you know."

"So you have told me many a time," said Sirius forlornly. "Will you go with me anyway?"

"Of course I will," said Remus. Sirius whooped, grabbed him by the arm, and led him from the common room.

Compared with the racket in Gryffindor tower, the quiet outside was almost overwhelming. Remus felt the urge to take Sirius's hand in his; it made his fingers itch until he had to shove them determinedly into his pockets. They reached the Quidditch pitch fairly quickly. No one else was there, and Sirius walked directly into the middle of it and began to spin in a circle, his arms outstretched. Remus smiled. Walking over to the stands, he sat down in the front row to watch. Sirius continued for only a minute or so, then spun a few times in the opposite direction to fight off the disorientation. As soon as the dizziness wore off, he walked over to join Remus.

"This reminds me of summer," Remus said, as soon as Sirius was close enough to hear him. "When you and James built your own Quidditch pitch in the Potters' backyard."

"Oh yeah!" Sirius exclaimed. "We used to play at least once a day. You always lost."

"You knew I wasn't good at Quidditch, but you made me play anyway," Remus defended. Sirius shrugged.

"We always had fun, though, didn't we?"

"Yes, we did."

"You remember when we used to race each other through James's house when his mum wasn't home?" Sirius asked.

"How could I forget? If you recall, Mr. Potter caught us once. He had come home from the Ministry early."

"And he just smiled that weird, little half-smile of his and went on his way," Sirius said fondly, making Remus chuckle.

"That was the night when we told Mrs. Potter we were going to sleep in the backyard and we actually stayed up to see the sunrise."

"And Pete fell asleep sitting up in that old apple tree," Sirius recalled, grinning. "That was one of my favorites."

"Mine too," said Remus. He had realized that he was in love with Sirius that night. It made him pleased to hear that Sirius remembered the occasion, and warmly at that.

Sighing, Remus looked up at the sky, studying the clouds. They seemed to erupt from the ground like enormous clouds of smoke, billowing higher and higher into the atmosphere. He watched their movement and it reminded him of Sirius's obsession with flying – the clouds looked as though they were traveling endlessly upward. Then he felt eyes on him, and he turned his head to see Sirius watching him intently. They stared at each other for one endless moment, and Remus's breath stopped.

The words slipped out of his mouth before Remus even realized he was going to say them. "What are you thinking?" he asked softly.

Sirius started, shaking his head slightly and blinking. "Nothing, really," he said. Then he hesitated. "Would you go flying with me?"

"But Sirius," said Remus. "I don't have a broom."

"You can use James's," Sirius told him, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "It's in the shed, along with mine. He won't mind."

"I suppose I ought to, then" said Remus, sighing exaggeratedly. "I _did_ agree to come down to the Quidditch pitch with you, after all. It only follows that I was inadvertently agreeing to go flying as well."

"Yay!" Sirius cheered, and he ran to the shed to get the broomsticks.

The two boys flew loops around the pitch for a while, and then took to racing each other across the field. The sun had started to set while they flew, and it shone gold amidst the mountainous clouds, turning them pink and orange and purple. Sirius hovered in mid-air to watch, and Remus, who was on the opposite side of the field, flew over to join him.

"It's gorgeous," the black-haired boy breathed.

"I must admit, it is very impressive," said Remus, smiling. "However, considering that it will be completely dark in about half an hour, we probably ought to think about heading back to the tower soon."

Sirius gave him an exasperated look. "Can't you just enjoy the beauty of a sunset?" he asked jokingly.

"Alas, I cannot," drawled Remus. "I am a grumpy old codger who cannot find joy in anything. See? I'm already about _this_ close to getting grey hairs." He grabbed a handful of hair and held it up for Sirius to examine.

"Oh, stop whining, Moony," Sirius said. "You'd still be adorable, even with a few greys."

Trying to ignore the sputtering in his chest, Remus looked at Sirius and raised an eyebrow questioningly.

"What?" Sirius asked. "You don't believe me? Am I not trustworthy enough for you? I assure you, I am about as trustworthy as trustworthy can be. In fact, I am the epitome of trustworthy. If you need someone to tell you the truth, I'm the bloke you come to. Got that? You come to me!"

Remus raised his eyebrow even more. Sirius responded by pulling faces at the blond, and soon Remus was reduced to helpless laughter. This went on for several minutes, until they heard a light cough on the ground below them. Lily's friend Alice was standing there, her hands clasped behind her back, looking decidedly awkward. Sirius and Remus exchanged glances and flew down to meet her.

"Hi, Remus, Sirius," Alice greeted them as soon as they'd landed.

"Hello, Alice," Remus replied. "How are you?"

"Oh, I'm fine," she said brightly. "You?"

"I'm well. What's going on?"

"Nothing, really." Alice bit her lip, the uncomfortable look returning to her face. She took a deep breath. "I'm here because of Lily."

Remus frowned. "Did something happen?"

"Well, no," Alice hedged. "Okay, she wanted me to come find you and tell you that-" her voice took on an exasperated tone, making it clear that she was quoting the redhead, "'-she knows she said she wouldn't bother you again, but she found some really good stuff, and she wants you to come down the library as soon as you can, even if you are hanging out with Sirius.'"

Remus glanced over at Sirius to see how he reacted to the last part of the message; he was staring at Alice in blatant confusion, his head cocked to one side, his brow furrowed. Remus cursed his luck.

"I'm sorry, Alice," he told the brown-haired girl; she clearly didn't like having to pass messages. "Would you be so kind as to tell Lily that I politely decline?"

"Sure thing," Alice said, smiling. "I told her you would, but she didn't listen to me."

"I'm not surprised," Remus said dryly. Alice giggled.

"Right," she said, suddenly businesslike. "You two seem busy, so I guess ought to leave you, yeah? Have fun!"

She practically skipped off of the Quidditch pitch, and this time Remus and Sirius both stared after her in confusion.

"Does she know something we don't?" Sirius asked at last.

"I have no idea," said Remus. In truth, he had a slight inkling as to what Alice had meant, and he was sincerely glad that Sirius was oblivious.

"Well," said Sirius, stretching his arms over his head, "it's probably late enough to let you fall asleep now, isn't it?"

"Yes, it is," Remus agreed. Sirius returned the two broomsticks to the shed where he had found them, and the two boys tromped back to the Gryffindor common room, each too deep in thought to notice that the other wasn't speaking either.

* * *

_A/N: Oh my goodness, I read the prequel last night and it was amazing!! All of you should go read it right now. www(dot)waterstoneswys(dot)com. Go there. Click on "read our authors' stories" and then click on JK Rowling. Holy crap, I was in shock. That woman's brilliance is clearly a thing to be marveled at. _

_Anyway, same drill as last time. Please leave me a review if you spot any mistakes! Heck, please leave me a review anyway! I walk around with an insane grin on my face for hours every time I get a review. It's rather amusing._

_Oh, and... _

_Disclaimer numer duo: I do not own anything that I quoted from LotR, although sometimes I wish I did. _


	3. Part 3

The Dangers of Writing a Love Letter, pt. 3

Remus woke up sweating. He kicked the blankets off, shivering when the cold air touched the bare skin of his arms, and turned his head to look at the clock. 3:42. He focused on making his breathing regular until he was sure he could do it without thinking. The dreams were almost more vivid tonight. Now they included random people, people he didn't even know, outing him to Sirius in the hallways. Remus blamed Alice for this new addition to the nightmare, whether her comments had been intentionally suggestive or not.

Annoyed, he climbed out of bed and fixed the tangle of blankets so that the bed was more conventionally made. Then he picked _Fellowship _up off of his nightstand and tiptoed out of his room.

The common room was dark and empty, just as Remus had expected. The only light came from the still-lit fireplace; it usually burned all night, with the house elves tending to it occasionally to keep it from going out. Remus sat down on the couch in front of it, pulled his knees up to his chest, and began to read.

He had only been there five minutes at most when he heard a creak from the direction of the stairs. His head snapped up immediately. To his surprise, he saw Sirius padding down them. The black-haired boy had a blanket wrapped around his bare chest, and his hair was sticking up in multiple places.

"Remus?" he whispered. Remus suspected that Sirius couldn't actually see him; the back of the couch hid the werewolf from sight.

"Over here, Sirius," he said. Sirius followed the sound of his voice and sunk onto the couch. There he curled up against Remus, resting his head the blond's shoulder. Remus could feel him breathing.

"What are you doing down here?" Remus asked. He felt Sirius shrug.

"I woke up and you weren't there," he replied. His voice was husky with sleep. "I didn't know where you went."

"You should be in bed," Remus said reproachfully.

"I could say the same about you," said Sirius. "What are _you_ doing down here?"

"I couldn't sleep." Remus tried to make his voice nonchalant. Sirius didn't fall for it.

"And that was enough to make you migrate down here? With a book, no less?"

Remus didn't respond, and Sirius seemed to sense that he wasn't going to get an answer. Instead he buried his face deeper against Remus's shoulder and pulled the blanket tighter around himself. Remus looked down at him.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Staying with you," mumbled Sirius. "You shouldn't be alone."

Remus opened his mouth, thought for a moment, and then closed it again. Within a few minutes, he felt Sirius's breathing grow heavier and more relaxed, and he knew that the boy had fallen asleep. Remus lifted his free arm and smoothed Sirius's hair, careful not to wake him. Impulsively, and only because he was sure that Sirius was asleep, Remus leaned down and gently kissed the top of Sirius's head. Then he leaned his own head against Sirius's, set the book down on the other side of the couch, and closed his eyes...

When Remus awoke, it was because he was being shaken. It was still dark, and the common room was still abandoned. James was kneeling in front of him, a concerned look on his face.

"Remus? You awake?"

"Mmm..." Remus mumbled. He didn't think he was capable of speech quite yet.

"Remus, you and Sirius are sleeping on the couch together."

Remus blinked. He turned his eyes downward. He and Sirius had moved in their sleep, it seemed; he had fallen backward, and Sirius had fallen forward. Now he was lying with his back against the seat of the couch, and Sirius was lying next to him, his head on Remus's chest and his arm draped across Remus's stomach.

Remus looked back up at James sleepily. The bespectacled boy was grinning ear to ear.

"What happened?" he asked eagerly.

Remus scrunched his nose several times, trying to convince his mouth to open so that he could speak. Finally he said, "Nothing. I couldn't sleep, I came down here, he followed me. I don't know why."

"But Moons, you-" James broke off, frustrated, and gestured at the pair of them. "Look at you two!"

"The last I can recall, we were both sitting up," said Remus firmly, making James frown. "What time is it?"

"About six o'clock," James told him. "That's why I came to get you. I woke up, and both your beds were empty, so I was suspicious, and I figured that I might as well check down here, y'know, just in case. You wouldn't want the rest of the house to get up and find you like this, would you?"

"I must admit, I can think of many other, much more preferable things," said Remus. He took a deep breath and whispered, "Sirius? Sirius, wake up."

"Mmm," Sirius moaned. "Bugger off, Moony."

Remus chuckled. "I'm afraid I can't – not with you lying on me, anyway."

Sirius sat bolt upright. "Huh-eh-wh-what?" he sputtered incoherently. Out of the corner of his eye, Remus saw James cover his mouth with both hands to keep from laughing out loud.

"It's six in the morning, and we probably ought to move back upstairs before the rest of our house starts to wake up," Remus explained. He tried not to sound too disappointed; he missed Sirius's warmth, and he desperately wished he could make Sirius lie down again.

"Oh." Sirius blinked. "Oh. Right." He stretched luxuriously and climbed off the couch, making his way back towards the stairway to the boys' dorms. James, who was now shaking with suppressed laughter, followed him.

Remus continued to lie on the couch for a moment, contemplating. He was sure that in those few hours, he'd slept better than he had so far all week. That struck him as strange. Shaking his head, he got up and trailed after his two friends.

Upon reaching their room, both Sirius and James fell back into their beds and fell asleep almost instantly. Remus, however, knew that it wasn't worth it for him to even try. He sat in a chair by the window and stared down at the calm surface of the lake outside. It would be lovely to sleep again, he thought wryly. If only he could figure out how. The full moon was in two weeks, and he would be sleep-deprived enough then. He wanted to get as well-rested as he could now, while he could.

Maybe if Remus could get the letter back, and successfully destroy it before Sirius could accidentally happen upon it, then he would be less stressed out. It wouldn't completely eliminate his subconscious fears of one of his friends letting something slip (even though he knew that they wouldn't, he still couldn't help worrying). But it would definitely lessen his anxiety if there weren't a love letter floating around the school in Lily's possession, where there was always the possibility of it getting lost. And maybe lessening that anxiety would enable him to sleep.

By the time Remus had made up his mind, the rest of his roommates were waking up for school. Remus dressed and packed his things swiftly. He left while Sirius and James were arguing over who would use the shower first – the main reason that Remus had developed a habit of showering in the evenings. He strode over to the staircase that led to the girls' dorm. Two third years were just coming down.

"Excuse me," he said quickly. "Do you know which room is Lily Evans'?"

They both flushed bright pink; apparently being addressed by a seventh year boy was too much for them. "Yes," said one of them softly.

"Could you please do a favor for me and tell her that Remus Lupin would like to speak with her?" Remus said, trying his hardest not to sound intimidating.

"Sure," the other one replied, giggling. They both sprinted up the stairs. Remus waited, leaning against the wall and tapping his fingers absently against his school bag. Within a few moments, the girls came running back.

"She said she's coming!" the first girl told Remus quickly. They stopped running in order to relay the message, but as soon as that was done, they continued on at a fast pace until they were out of Gryffindor tower. Remus watched them, torn between confusion and amusement.

"Remus, stop harassing little children, please," came Lily's humorous voice. Remus swung around to see the redhead, her arms crossed over her chest, standing just behind him. She was still wearing a pair of sweatpants and an extra-large sweater.

"They didn't wake you up, did they?" he asked.

"No," Lily shook her head. "But if _they_ weren't awake already, you certain woke _them_ up. I was sorely tempted to tell them that you're not into girls that way."

Remus glared.

"Okay, you know I wouldn't have said anything," Lily sighed. "But you can't deny, the looks on their faces would have been absolutely hysterical. So what's up?"

"I want the letter back."

Lily blinked. "Pardon?"

"The letter. The one you've had since Sunday, supposedly for research purposes. I want it back."

"Oh." Lily frowned. "Do you have to? I haven't been through all of my books yet, and I might need it for something–"

"Yes, I have to," Remus cut her off. "I need it back, Lil. I think I've been quite generous enough to let you keep it for this long."

"I suppose you're right," Lily grumbled. "Wait here; I'll got get it."

She raced back up to her room, and came back bearing the folded up piece of parchment in her hands.

"Here you go," she said. "One adorably sweet love letter, as promised."

Remus glanced around frantically for any eavesdroppers, but luckily the common room was empty.

"Thanks," he said. He opened his bag and shoved it inside before anything else could happen to it. Lily watched him with a wistful look on her face.

"But if, you know, for some odd reason you decide you don't need it anymore..." she said hopefully.

"No, Lily," Remus said firmly.

"Damn," Lily said.

* * *

"Black or white, Moony?"

Remus studied the chess set before him. It was perched on the faded purple seat of a wooden chair in the Gryffindor common room; he and Sirius were sitting on the floor on either side of it. Sirius had his elbows balanced on the edge of the chair, his fingers interlocked to make a platform to rest his chin on. Remus sat with his legs pulled in to his chest and his arms wrapped around them.

"Well," he said slowly. "I'm pretty sure that last time I was black."

"Right." Sirius flipped the board so that the white pieces were in front of his companion. "The first move is yours."

Remus smiled. He had taught Sirius the Muggle version of the game in the middle of second year; Sirius had promptly decided that he liked it better than the traditional Wizard chess he had grown up with. After that, they had started to play chess together every couple weeks. Remus always won, but Sirius always proposed the next game.

Despite the few hours of relatively good sleep Remus had gotten in the early morning, he was still fairly exhausted. Aside from that fact, however, today had been a pretty normal day. He had gone to class, spent time with the Marauders (plus one redhead), and attempted yet again to read _The Fellowship of the Ring._ He was beginning to suspect that some higher power was determined to keep him from doing so; not seconds after he had sat down to read, Sirius appeared out of nowhere to challenge him to a chess match. Remus consented, promising himself that if he couldn't sleep tonight, he would read his book then.

The game started out fairly slowly – both boys spent long minutes deliberating over which pieces to move, only to end up moving pawns. Their audience was already forming, though; Remus and Sirius's chess games were somewhat of a famous spectacle in Gryffindor tower. The older students came to watch as soon as they heard the rumor that a match was taking place, and the younger students were drawn to the presence of their older peers like bears to honey.

James and Peter arrived just as the game was beginning to heat up.

"Aw, brilliant," said Peter, scanning the chessboard. "Who's winning?"

"Sirius, for the moment," Remus answered him. Sirius was too busy planning his next move to realize that anyone had spoken.

"Does he actually think he has a chance?" Peter asked. Remus smirked.

"He always does. Merlin only knows why. You'd think that after two years of straight losses, he would realize that it was hopeless."

"That's our Padfoot: stubborn as ever."

"Would you shut up already?" Sirius hissed. "I'm trying to think."

Peter and Remus exchanged glances and shook their heads. Sirius moved his bishop three spaces to the left to take out one of Remus's pawns.

"Ha ha!" he shouted triumphantly. "Take that, Moony, my darling!"

Remus rolled his eyes and leaned forward to examine his options. James, who had been walking around the common room, came to sit down next to the rest of the Marauders.

"Have any of you seen Lily?" he asked. "She said she'd meet me back here, but she disappeared after dinner."

"I'll bet you five galleons she's in the library," Remus said without looking up.

"You're right!" James exclaimed. "Why didn't I think of that?" Without another word, he ran out of the common room.

Remus scrunched up his nose in concentration, and then used his rook to take out Sirius's other bishop. Sirius groaned.

The game continued for another half an hour. Their audience had practically doubled by the end, and whenever another piece was eliminated, a cheer arose from the crowd. James returned, Lily in tow, just as Remus caught Sirius in a checkmate. The audience applauded, and Sirius shrugged.

"Happens every time," he said cheerfully. Remus just smiled.

"Oi! Remus!" Lily called. She and James made their way through the dissipating throng of people. "I have something for you. Read it, okay?" She dropped a large, hardcover book into Remus's lap.

Remus froze when he saw the title. It was _How to Tell Someone You Love Them (With Magic). _Remus irrationally wished he had known that the book would show up later to cause him trouble; he would have thrown it out a window when he first saw it in the Arithmancy classroom. He made to cover up the title, but it was too late: Sirius had seen it.

"Why does he need a book like that?" he asked Lily, craning his neck to get a better look at it.

Remus felt his brain going into panicked overdrive. For a split second, Lily looked horrified. She quickly composed herself and said, her voice surprisingly calm, "I just thought it was an interesting read, and I wanted to share it with him. You know how Remus likes a good book."

Sirius continued to study the cover of the self-help book, his expression blank. Remus bit his lip so hard he was sure it was going to bleed. He looked up to see Lily wringing her hands and James pinching the bridge of his nose between his thumb and pointer finger. Peter was looking bewilderedly back and forth between the four of them. At last, Sirius stood up.

"Well, good game, Moony," he said. He looked just as cheerful as he had before, but now there was a strange tone in his voice that Remus couldn't place. "I should probably get started on my homework, though. Do you reckon I could borrow your Defense notes to get started on that essay?"

"Of course," Remus said, struggling to keep his own voice sounding normal. It was a testimony on how tense the situation was that no one even thought to tease Sirius about starting his homework early. "They're in my school bag, by my bed."

"Thanks," said Sirius. "I'll put them back when I'm done."

Remus, Lily, and James watched in silence until he had gone up the stairs and disappeared into the dorms. Then they exhaled in one, collective gust of air.

"Oh, God," Lily murmured. "Remus, I'm _so_ sorry."

"What for?" Peter asked. "What's going on?"

The other three ignored him. "I wasn't thinking," Lily continued. "I just read the book, and I thought you should too, and I didn't think he was that close to you, and I can't believe I just did that, and I'm _so_ sorry!"

Remus didn't move. He was still looking at the staircase in a state of shock.

"You know she didn't mean it, Remus," said James, patting Remus on the shoulder lightly. "It was accidental. No harm done, right?"

"What are you talking about?" Peter wanted to know.

Remus shook his head, his eyes still on the staircase, and addressed James. "I don't know. That might have just been enough to make him suspicious."

"Oh my God, I am SO sorry!" Lily cried, covering her mouth with both of her hands. She looked as if she could burst out crying at any moment.

"Will someone please answer me?" Peter half-shouted. Lily and James jumped.

"Well?" James asked, looking at Remus. Remus nodded ever so slightly to give James permission. "Basically Lily's been trying to research ways to help Remus tell Sirius that he loves him," James said bluntly.

"Oh." Peter blinked. "Is that all?"

Remus snapped. "What do you mean, 'is that all'?" he shrieked. His voice broke towards the end of the sentence.

"I just–" Peter paused, looking frightened. "I was just expecting something different – something bigger than that. I've known there was something between you and Sirius for months."

Remus's eyes widened. "Am I that obvious?"

The other three looked at each other. "Sort of?" Peter said.

"Oh, Merlin!" Remus dropped his head into his hands. "I don't believe this."

"Look, it's going to be fine, okay?" said James, glaring slightly at Peter. "We all know Sirius is kind of thick when it comes to important stuff. I'll bet that by tomorrow morning, he's forgotten all about this."

"Or he'll think I'm in love with him," said Remus miserably. "Or worse, he'll think I'm in love with someone else, and he'll start interrogating me nonstop until he figures out who it is."

"You know, if you just told him now, you wouldn't have to go through any of that," said Lily. Remus looked up to gape at her.

"I...but...eh...ah...bu-" he spluttered. Then he dropped his head back into his hands again. "Next time, just don't give me suspicious books when he's around, okay?"

"Next time?" Lily and James asked simultaneously.

"I mean, you know..." Remus groaned. "Ugh, you two are so irritating!"

"It's a natural talent," said James, smirking. Remus responded by throwing a pillow at him. The bespectacled boy squealed and jumped out of the way.

"Remus, why don't you just tell Sirius how you feel?" asked Peter.

"Because... just because! He might not feel the same, and I don't want to ruin our friendship or anything. You know."

Peter turned to shoot an incredulous look at James, who held up both of his hands in defeat. "How did you two find out?" he asked.

"Remus wrote one of those 'I'm writing you a love letter but I'm not actually gong to give it to you' letters," said James. "I came across it on accident, and then Lily stole it from me."

Lily glared at him. "I didn't steal! I just used every skill at my disposal to read it. I was curious!"

Peter ignored them, still thinking about what James had said. "I think you should give him the letter," he said to Remus at last.

"But that letter was written with every intention of it never being seen by human eyes again!" Remus cried. "Hell, I'm going to burn the thing as soon as I can get back into the dorm without Sirius being present!"

"Then why did you even-" Peter began, but Lily cut him off.

"Remus!" she shouted frantically, waving her hands in the air to get their attention. The three boys looked at her, waiting for whatever she had been about to say, but nothing came.

"Um, yes, Lily?" Remus said slowly.

At first, she still didn't respond. She was staring straight ahead, as if she were looking at something that no one else could see. She looked terrified. At last she said, "When I gave you the letter, you put it in your school bag."

It took Remus a moment to realize what she was getting at, but as soon as he did, he felt as if the wind had been knocked out of him. The letter was mixed among all the notes in the bag. The notes that he had just sent Sirius to search for. The chance that Sirius had somehow missed it was slim to none.

He took off immediately. Sprinting for the staircase at breakneck speed, he nearly knocked over a tiny, first year boy, who yelled at him even as he raced in the direction of his room. Without bothering to knock, he burst through the door.

It was the closest thing to déjà vu that Remus had ever experienced. There was Sirius, sitting on the bed, just like James had been. There was the letter, unfolded on Sirius's lap (Remus could tell by the number of times the parchment had been creased). There he was, Remus himself, panting in the doorway and wishing that he had the ability to sink into the ground at will. Sirius looked up at him, his expression to intense for Remus to even consider trying to decipher. Remus knew that he understood everything.

"Oh, fuck," Remus moaned. "I– I can– I just–" He backed up against the door and felt it click shut behind him. "Fuck!"

Sirius stood up, swiftly folding the letter and shoving it into his pocket. "Remus, I–"

"I'm _so _sorry! You weren't supposed to see that! I mean, I never meant for anyone to see it... I mean, I– I didn't–" Remus could feel his cheeks burning; his heart was thumping wildly in his chest, and his breathing was ragged. Yet again, Sirius had managed to leave him absolutely and painfully speechless.

"Look, Remus–" Sirius tried to speak again. Remus interrupted him; he knew what Sirius was going to tell him, and he couldn't bear to hear it.

"I understand if you don't want to speak to me again. I'll leave you alone if you ask. You're completely within your rights to cut off all contact with me, and I'll respect whatever you want to–" Remus stopped, his eyes growing round.

"Remus?" Sirius asked anxiously.

The blond groaned. "I'm dreaming! Oh God, I'm dreaming, aren't I? This is just like every other time, and any minute now, I'm going to wake up and none of this will have happened!"

"Remus?" Sirius repeated. This time he sounded exasperated. Remus ignored him.

"That's it: I'm asleep, and I'm just going to wake up now... any minute now... and then everything will be fine..."

Sirius sighed impatiently. In two quick strides he crossed the room, caught Remus's face between his hands, and placed his mouth on Remus's.

Remus froze in shock, unable to respond. Sirius kissed him slowly, gently, and then pulled back. His grey eyes watched Remus hopefully, his hands never dropping from Remus's face. Speechless, Remus opened and closed his mouth several times before he could finally spit anything out.

"I am most definitely dreaming" he said with certainty.

Rolling his eyes, Sirius said, "Would you _please_ stop with this ridiculous dreaming thing? I'm trying to tell you that I love you too, and you're not making it any easier for me!"

"Uh... er...what?" Remus whispered.

Sirius smiled, and it was the most beautiful thing Remus had ever seen. "I love you too, you great prat," he said.

Remus didn't need telling twice; he flung himself at Sirius. The black-haired boy gasped as Remus's body forcefully collided with his, and then he was kissing Remus desperately, his hands winding through Remus's hair as if to pull him closer. Carefully, because he couldn't see where he was going while kissing, Remus pushed Sirius in the direction of the bed; he knew he had reached his destination when Sirius suddenly fall backwards, pulling Remus with him. Sirius laughed; he kissed both of Remus's eyelids softly, and then the tip of his nose, before moving back to his lips.

"Are you convinced that you're awake yet?" he asked humorously when he pulled away. Remus laid his head on Sirius's chest and closed his eyes, determined to feel every heartbeat.

"Yes," he said. "I guess. I'm just... confused."

"About?"

"Everything. Why me? I'm not at all attractive or anything. And I thought you liked girls."

Sirius's voice echoed in his chest when he spoke. "I don't think you see yourself clearly. _I_ think you're smart and fun and adorable and brave and very, very, very attractive." He kissed the top of Remus's head to accentuate each adverb. "And honestly, when was the last time I actually went out with a bird?"

"I know, I know," Remus said. "I just... I thought that there was no way you could ever have feelings for another guy."

"Oh, Remus," Sirius sighed, shaking his head. "Look, I'm going to fall in love with whomever I fall in love with, yeah? Regardless of gender."

"Oh."

"Yeah. Oh." Sirius chuckled. "And it just so happens that I'm in love with you. Have been for ages, actually. I can't believe you never caught on. I was throwing myself all over you, for Merlin's sake!"

Remus thought about this while Sirius traced circles absently on Remus's shoulder. "Wait..." he said slowly. "Then it wasn't because you didn't understand the meaning of personal space?"

There was an awkward pause, and then Sirius burst into hysterical laughter. Remus took that as an emphatic no. He sat up so as not to get jostled and crossed his arms, waiting for Sirius to sober up.

"And that conversation on Sunday, about knowing when it's right... that was about _me_?" he asked.

"Of course it was," Sirius said. "I was hoping you would notice, maybe even get jealous or something – anything, really, if it would help me figure out if you loved me back. But you were completely oblivious, as usual."

"But about what you said Sunday: you... you think we're _supposed_ to be together? Like fate or whatnot?" The idea sounded too good to be true; Remus sternly ordered his heart to behave.

Sirius grimaced. "It sounds terrible when you say it."

"No, it doesn't," Remus objected. "It sounds perfectly reasonable to me."

"Really?" Sirius asked doubtfully.

"Yes."

"I'm glad you think so." Sirius grabbed Remus by the tie and pulled him forward for another kiss.

Remus reacted more strongly than he had anticipated. The blood boiled in his veins and he kissed Sirius back fiercely, running his lips along Sirius's until Sirius was trembling. His hands traced the contours of Sirius's chest, studying. He could feel Sirius's fingers loosening the knot of his tie, fumbling with the top buttons of his shirt. Once they were undone, Sirius pushed Remus back onto the bed and climbed on top of him, all the while still kissing him in a way that ought to have been criminal. Then his lips trailed slowly down Remus's jaw-line and all the way to his collarbone, where he began to suck on the skin there. This elicited a moan of longing from Remus. The blond hooked his legs around Sirius's hips, pulling Sirius even closer against his body, and Sirius growled. He moved his mouth back to Remus's...

"God damn it!" shouted a familiar voice angrily from the hallway outside the door.

Sirius and Remus froze, their lips still brushing lightly.

"What?" Sirius began to hiss, but Remus hushed him with a finger against his lips.

"Shh," he whispered. Carefully, he unhooked his legs. Sirius moved off of the werewolf and helped him to his feet. They tiptoed towards the door as quietly as possible, stopping just in front of it. Then Remus pulled the door open.

James, Lily, and Peter were all gathered outside. Lily sat cross-legged on the floor, looking at her lap, her face bright pink. Peter leaned against the wall, shifting slightly from one foot to the other, clearly uncomfortable. James stood in the middle of them, his hands clasped over his mouth and his eyes wide in horror.

Sirius and Remus glanced at each other, and Remus sighed. "May I ask why you found it necessary to sit out here and listen to us snog?" he asked exasperatedly.

The three of them looked at each other uncomfortably. Lily glared at James.

"We had a bet going," she said reluctantly. "And that _child_ over there just lost."

"Hey!" James protested, but another irritated glance from Lily silenced him.

"A bet on what, exactly?" Remus asked, crossing his arms.

Lily seemed to realize that it was futile to evade answering him. "On how long you two would be at it in there."

"Who won?" Sirius asked. He sounded much more amused by the whole thing than Remus really thought he should be.

"I did," said Peter from behind his hand. Lily choked; she was trying not to laugh.

"Congratulations, Pete. How much?"

Remus ran a hand through his hair. "Sirius, is that really necessary? I'm trying to guilt them into going away, and your enthusiasm isn't helping the cause."

Sirius caught on immediately; his eyes widened, and he broke into an immense grin. He turned to address the eavesdroppers. "You're leaving. Now."

"Right," said Lily quickly. She grabbed Peter by the arm and James by the collar and proceeded to drag them back down the stairs.

"Ten galleons!" Peter called back to them, as he tried not to trip over anything. "The winner was supposed to get ten galleons!"

"Make sure to take more from James!" Sirius advised. There was the sound of muffled cursing from the bottom of the stairs, and then they were gone.

Still grinning widely, Sirius gave Remus as sidelong glance. "So, Remus, my love… where were we?"

Remus smiled softly and pulled him back into the bedroom. They didn't come out for quite some time.

* * *

Over the next several days, the weather began to get colder and the days began to get darker as winter approached. Remus didn't notice much, though. He was spending all of his free time with Sirius, and he was very, very happy about it. He was sleeping again; he was able to focus again; he could spend an entire afternoon sitting with Sirius in the common room, his head in Sirius's lap while Sirius played with his hair, and no one said a thing. Admittedly, he did receive rather sullen looks from occasional groups of girls passing by, but that didn't matter to Remus. Suddenly everything was as it should be.

He and Sirius had talked for hours after Lily, James, and Peter had left them. They discussed everything they could think of regarding their feelings for each other. Both boys found it extremely comical that they had been in love with each other for years without realizing it. Remus had felt it necessary to enlighten Sirius as to why he had been so stressed lately – and about the purpose of Lily's library research. He wasn't sure he'd ever seen Sirius so amused; the black-haired boy had laughed for nearly ten minutes without stopping and then, once he had calmed down enough, kissed Remus thoroughly.

Remus grinned at the memory. He was sitting in the dorm that the Marauders shared, jotting down some finishing touches on the Defense Against the Dark Arts paper that was due the next day. The rest of his companions were downstairs in the common room; Sirius had been in an exceptionally distracting mood, and, as much as Remus didn't like it, he had needed to request some alone time in order to get the essay done. Sirius had pouted for a while, just for the sake of teasing the werewolf. Then he, James, and Peter had gone down to the common room to annoy Lily, and Remus had started on his essay.

Now that he was finished, he rolled up his parchment, stood up, and stretched. He hadn't heard anything from downstairs in a while now, and it made him a slight bit nervous. If they had been serious about their plans to irritate Lily, it was highly possible that Lily had retaliated. The last time something like that had happened, Sirius and James had ended up hanging from the ceiling, each of them suspended only by a rope tied to one ankle. The spell had been so good that even Remus hadn't known how to undo it.

Once his essay was safely packed in his school bag, Remus opened the door to the room, planning to go see what was going on in the common room. He hadn't gone more than a few steps when he nearly tripped over Sirius. The boy was sitting on the floor, his back against the wall, reading Remus's own copy of _The Fellowship of the Ring. _

Remus stared. Sirius looked up.

"Hi," he said lightly.

"Hi," Remus replied. "Um... can I ask what you're doing, exactly?"

"Well, I'm reading, obviously." Sirius held up the book as proof.

"No, I mean... why are you sitting here?"

"Oh. I was waiting for you."

Remus thought about this for a moment. "You do realize that you are utterly ridiculous sometimes, don't you?"

"Unfortunately, I am reminded almost daily," said Sirius gravely. Then he leaped up and pulled Remus into an embrace, placing a chaste kiss on his lips. "Are you done now?"

"Yes, I am."

"Oh, good. Come downstairs with me."

Sirius offered Remus an arm, which Remus took, and led him down to the common room.

"By the way, why _were_ you reading?" Remus asked. He lifted a hand to feel Sirius's forehead. "Are you sure you're feeling okay?"

"Ha ha," Sirius drawled. "I just saw your book in the common room, and it looked interesting, so I decided to read it."

"Wow," said Remus. "I think I'm in shock. You're reading a book. And of your own, free will, no less."

Sirius ruffled the blond's hair playfully. "You could try not to act so surprised. I just know that you like it a lot, and I was curious."

Remus smiled and kissed Sirius. "I love you."

"I love you too," Sirius whispered, kissing Remus back.

"Moony and Padfoot, would you two stop snogging in the stairwell, _please_?" James shouted. The two looked up to see him sitting next to Lily on a nearby couch. "It is exceedingly uncomfortable to watch one's best mates snog each other."

Sirius smirked wickedly. "Well, that's odd, Jamie-boy. You didn't complain at all when I spent last night in Remus's bed. We had a pretty good time, I'd say; wouldn't you, love?" He looked at Remus mischievously.

"Oh, yes," said Remus, playing along, putting his arms around Sirius's neck. "A _very_ good time. I must say, I was impressed; I had no idea you could move like that."

"There's a lot you don't know about me," Sirius said. He leaned forward to kiss Remus sensually.

"Well, aren't we lucky?" asked Remus, trying to ensure that his breathing was steady. "We have tonight, and tomorrow night, and the next night, and the next..."

James screamed in agony and covered his face with his hands. "STOP! Oh, Merlin, make it stop! My mind – my poor, _innocent_ mind! You've killed it! KILLED it, I say! Don't make me revoke my blessing, because I will if I have to!"

"Oh, no, you will not," said Lily sharply. She picked up a pillow and hit him over the head with it. "How could you even _think_ such a thing? Look at how cute they are!"

James blinked, twitched, and then collapsed, moaning, against the back of the couch. Sirius and Remus burst out laughing.

"Sorry, Prongs," said Sirius. "You're just too easy to mess with." He sat down on a chair next to Lily and James's couch, pulling Remus into his lap and tucking Remus's head under his chin.

"So, you didn't actually _do_ anything last night, did you?" James asked nervously.

"Well..." Remus trailed off and looked at Sirius, who winked. James moaned again and shoved his head under the pillow that Lily had used to hit him.

"Hey, what's going on?" Peter had just entered through the portrait hole and walked over to them. Sirius, Remus, and Lily exchanged glances.

"Nothing," said Lily firmly. Peter looked at the four of them, his gaze lingering on Remus (sitting on Sirius) and James (still under his pillow). Then he shrugged and sat down on the couch next to Lily and James.

"So I found out where Professor Sprout keeps the speaking plant seeds," he announced proudly. "I went down to talk to her about our last project, and she was cleaning out her cabinets. They're in a locked dresser on the very bottom shelf, under the counters; she said they like the dark, dank environment there."

"Brilliant!" James popped out from under his pillow. "Do you think we could use them for the prank?"

Remus laughed softly to himself. Sirius had told James about his idea for a end-of-the-year prank, and James had loved it – in fact, he had been annoyed at Sirius and Remus for not telling him sooner.

"Probably," said Peter. "They aren't _that_ heavily guarded. Just a few locking charms, from what I can tell. Most people don't even know that she had them, so I don't think she's worried about them getting stolen."

"But what would we do with talking plants?" Lily asked. She had found out about the prank fairly early on, when James accidentally let it slip. To Remus's surprise, she had actually liked the idea, and requested to be a part of it.

"We could plant them all over the school!" Sirius said with enthusiasm. "Wouldn't that be great, to have random talking plants on a staircase or in a hallway or in the dungeons?"

"But what would they say?" Lily wanted to know.

As Lily, James, Peter, and Sirius brainstormed, Remus simply closed his eyes and listened to the low rumble of Sirius's voice echoing in his chest. Sirius was fingering Remus's hair, and every so often placing a soft kiss on the top of Remus's head. Remus thought happily of the letter he had written, which he knew for a fact was currently residing in Sirius's pocket. Sirius had asked Remus if he could keep it, and Remus hadn't been able to say no. He really didn't even mind; now that he knew Sirius loved him, he didn't care what happened to the letter anymore. It was no longer important.

Sirius had absentmindedly carried _The Fellowship of the Ring _downstairs with them, and he had set it on the table next to them when they sat down. Sighing, Remus reached out and picked it up. If they needed to involve him in the prank-planning, they would say something to get his attention. But until then, he was going to read. Maybe, now that everything was the way that it should be, he would actually be able to finish the book.

... But then again, maybe not.

"Hey, look!" Sirius exclaimed, sitting up more and wrapping his arms around Remus to keep the blond from falling. "It's snowing!"

The four other seventh years looked up instantly.

"It's beautiful," said Lily. "I can't believe it's already snowing; it's only just November." She watched the snow for a moment, and then her eyes widened. "Ooh! We should go outside!"

James and Sirius looked at each other. "Snowball fight!" they declared at the same time. Lily rolled her eyes, but she followed when James jumped up, took her hand, and ran for the portrait hole. Peter shook his head and trailed after them.

"Will you come with us?" Sirius asked Remus.

"You think I'd miss the first snowball fight of the year?" Remus asked incredulously. "Although, admittedly, the snow probably won't last, so it most likely won't be that much of a snowball fight. It'll probably be something more like you and James trying to catch snow in your hands and lobbing it at each other. But, of course, there's no way I'd miss that, even if it is rather silly."

Sirius responded by turning Remus's face to kiss him. The feeling sent jolts of electricity through Remus's body, and he maneuvered himself so that he was facing Sirius, his legs hanging off either arm of the chair. He fastened his arms around Sirius's neck, and his hands explored the muscles of Sirius's shoulders and back. He could feel Sirius's hands on his body as well, making his breath came in short, ragged gasps. Sirius nipped at Remus's lower lip, and then slid his tongue into Remus's mouth; their breath intermingled as they tasted each other. Remus was just wondering how to convince Sirius that the bedroom would be a more appropriate place to continue this when Peter's voice interrupted them.

"Are you two lovebirds coming or not?"  
"Ah, damn. Thwarted," sighed Sirius reluctantly.

Remus laughed. "Well?" he asked. "Shall we join them?"

"Why not? We always have later, don't we?" Sirius kissed Remus again, slowly, and Remus shivered in anticipation at the promise.

"Just so you know, I _am_ leaving now!" Peter shouted significantly.

This time both Remus and Sirius laughed.

"Alright, alright!" shouted Sirius. He wrapped an arm around Remus's waist and the two of them followed Peter out of Gryffindor tower.

* * *

_A/N: Well, that got a little bit cheesier than I originally intended... but it made my friend Mollie absurdly pleased, and since I dedicated this story to her, I guess that's alright. Thanks so much for reading, everybody! I hope you enjoyed it! Make sure to leave a review on your way out!_


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